15 Unlikely British TV Shows To Spawn Hollywood Stars

3. Dark Season €“ Kate Winslet

This was a BBC production, and was shown as a replacement for Maid Marion and Her Merry Men during the kid's broadcasts on BBC One. It had six episodes, which were broken into two three part stories featuring the same characters. Based in a school, firstly an evil teacher distributes computers to the children and then the second story was about someone trying to dig up a super computer buried in the school's playing field. Yes, very typical 1991-type stuff. Dark Season is notable for two things, and two things only. Firstly it launched the television writing career of Russell T. Davies (he was also involved in writing for a children's variety/sketch show called On the Waterfront, but I don't count it as an actual drama). Dark Season came three years before Children's Ward and eight years before Queer as Folk. It was his first proper credit as a writer and launched his career, and because of that we have the Doctor Who that we have now. So no Dark Season, and possibly no Who either €“ or at least someone else's idea of Who. But the other reason for notability is that it included as a main cast member, in her very first television role €“ Kate Winslet. Dark Season was three years prior to her break out role in Heavenly Creatures and four years before she received an Academy Award nomination for Sense and Sensibility. In fact, Winslet has gone on to set records for the most Oscar nominations at particular ages. If you include her win in 2009 for The Reader, Winslet has been nominated six times in total. Four of these were for Lead Actress, and two for Actress in a Supporting Role. Yet, this amazing Academy Award-winning actress took her first steps in a main cast television role in Dark Season. In fact, she almost went straight from that to Heavenly Creatures, with only three minor roles (including a spot appearance on Casualty) before she appeared in the Peter Jackson-helmed film. I don't know of any other actors who appeared in a kid's TV show in that sort of timeslot who have ever gone on to be terribly successful in Hollywood, let alone win an Oscar.